Funding Opportunity: Technology to Market 2
SunShot Subprogram: Technology to Market
Location: Rochester, MN
SunShot Award Amount: $700,000
Awardee Cost Share: $754,577

EnergyBin is creating an online marketplace for overstock and hard-to-find components in the solar industry, reducing project construction and maintenance costs while providing a means by which decommissioned materials can be reused. This members-only platform will provide a place for engineering, procurement, construction, manufacturers, distributors, and other firms to sell overstock that would otherwise sit in storage facilities, and to provide these companies with discounted, warrantied solar project components from vetted, reputable sources. In addition, the platform will also have the ability to supply operating projects with replacement parts that are otherwise unavailable or have extended delivery times.

Approach

The project team will develop an online business-to-business platform specifically designed for the U.S. solar marketplace that facilitates the brokering, movement, and commerce around hard-to-find PV systems and components by incorporating baseline features and functionalities based on the needs of the solar industry’s buyers and sellers. EnergyBin will also engage and educate the solar industry on this new platform by recruiting an advisory board and general community members.  New members will be trained on how to use the platform and feedback will be solicited to establish usability and the tool’s value to the community.

Innovation

This project has the potential to lower the cost of residential and commercial project capital costs by 12% over the next two years by reducing the cost of panels, inverters, and racking for residential projects by more than 20%. This first-of-its-kind platform hopes to decrease the levelized cost of energy by 6%.